


No Escape

by Kieran (Ameenjouee)



Series: For You. [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 09:06:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13784241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ameenjouee/pseuds/Kieran
Summary: The beginning of the end is bittersweet. It was just never meant to be the end.





	No Escape

**Author's Note:**

> written set to Demons by Imagine Dragons. I have plans to continue this, taking it through Kei's first year at the very least. 
> 
> The Small Giant remained nameless in this because??? I'm lazy and his name isn't confirmed????  
> So sorry if that confused anyone!!!

Funny thing about lies is not only do they build up over time, but they have a way of involving people that would otherwise be unaffected. **  
**

For Akiteru, they’d slowly become a mixture of a nightmare and a lifeline.

He hated disappointing Kei - dear god, did he hate disappointing his baby brother.

So of course, when he realized in his first year that all his hard work and innate skill was getting him nowhere on Karasuno’s team - not even on the bench - he did the only thing he could to save his brother from cynicism that would come from learning the same lesson Akiteru was.

He lied.

He could make excuses for the year, and next year would be better. It would be fine.

He just refused to disappoint his brother, refused to lower himself to losing hope himself.

Refused to be like their father.

If that meant lying to protect the both of them, then he could handle that. As much as he hated lying, if it saved his brother disappointment and himself from self-hatred of comparing himself to someone who wasn’t even around anymore, he’d lie until his dying day.

He just hoped Kei never found out that he was too afraid, too ashamed, to be honest.

* * *

His second year wasn’t any better than his first, if he were honest.

Or… it was, in some ways.

He still kept lying to Kei - god did he hate that he was lying, but what else could he do? Admit that he wasn’t as good as Kei thought? Let him down? Absolutely not.

But with it, Akiteru gained someone that meant he wasn’t going through literal hell alone.

Of course, said someone was the reason the lies kept spiraling further into existing and thus making sure the damage should Kei ever find out was the worst it could possibly be.

But he was also there on the days when Akiteru thought that he didn’t have it in him to keep lying, keep hoping, keep  _existing_  further.

It was such a quiet intensity, covered in determined, sharp words and fiery looks that Akiteru knew he’d never forget.

It helped to ground the former ace in a way he hadn’t had the previous year, giving him a reason to believe that a bad day wasn’t the end of the world like it had started to feel like.

He’d be forever grateful, even if things did go down in flames.

* * *

Halfway through second year, a year of lies already built up, and Akiteru was growing tired of lying.

He could barely keep his lies straight anymore anyway, not that Kei ever noticed when he mixed up information they’d discussed already.

He supposed it was written off as him being tired - he was, there was no doubt about that.

Practice was slowly killing him - he worked himself half to death, stayed after most days, and it still  _wasn’t enough_  and that was breaking him.

The only reason he kept lying was the look of wonder and hope and  _trust_  in Kei’s eyes.

It was getting to the point where it was hard to meet honey-golden eyes anymore. Because honestly, he didn’t deserve to have such a look of awe directed at him.

He was nothing but a fake anymore.

But he kept it up - he had to keep it up, he couldn’t break them both that way.

Even as he sat back and watched his new friend move onto the court as a regular starter.

It hurt. Oh god, did it hurt. But that didn’t matter.

A year of lies had built up and it was too late to turn back without destroying his relationship with his brother.

No way out, there’d be questions or arguing or just… nothingness. And he didn’t want any of those options.

* * *

Akiteru’s least favorite thing about his friend?

For someone so mischievous, he was a damn fool.

“Things happen for a reason, it’ll be fine. Your little brother won’t find out, Akiteru,”

The worry was always there, though, and they both felt it.

They kept tense on game days, working together for hours before them to come up with an excuse for Akiteru to tell Kei as to why he couldn’t come see the match.

The difference is, Akiteru never relaxed.

It was hard to relax when you could feel things beginning to crack.

* * *

The next year started with a foreboding feeling.

Something wasn’t right, and it was setting them both on edge.

There were more questions after Kei - “You said he started playing volleyball, too? How’s he doing?” “Is he still upset he can’t come see the matches?” “Do you want to tell him you’re not playing this year?”

But there weren’t any solutions.

So Akiteru kept lying.

And it killed him inside to do so. He was so sick of lying to Kei, he was so sick of lying to himself and his only friend and he was just tired of everything.

He was going to lose everything. He could feel it, even at the very beginning of the year.

Now all that was left to do was brace for an inevitable fall out.

* * *

Grey eyes flashed to the stands when Akiteru’s voice no longer rang out clearly - he was always able to hear his senpai’s voice during games,  _always_ , so why was it different now.

Impact happened point-two seconds later and as soon as his feet were back on the ground, he took in the expression as well as he could from his place on the court.

Wide eyes. Dull.

 _Fuck_.

The second they had a time out, a glance over his own shoulder confirmed his fear - there, in the stands, stood Akiteru kid brother.

The gig was up, it was over and had gone down in flames

But that couldn’t be real.  _It couldn’t be real._

The way Akiteru cried in the change room once everyone else had gone, though, clinging to him and bowed in on himself so he was shorter, gasping for a breath that seemed like it wasn’t going to ever come, said it was.

It was real and there’s nothing he could do to fix it.


End file.
